Jennifer Hudson's Funny or Die video on the Affordable Care Act...

Amy Poehler and the White House were in on making this, too, says CBS.
 

Scandalous with Jennifer Hudson from Jennifer Hudson

Fake Geek Girls: The Show

Hey Nerd-Muffins, check it out:



Writer/director Sara Clarke was inspired to create this show after seeing controversy over the "fake geek girl" phenomenon explode online. As she puts it, "I saw a lot of feminist criticisms of geek culture that I thought were very powerful. I wanted to contribute to the discussion, but instead of a blog takedown or a documentary series, I decided to talk about awesome female nerds through comedy. Meanwhile, in the apartment downstairs, my hilarious neighbor Julie-Joy was looking for more material to stretch her wings as a comedic actress. That's how Fake Geek Girls was born."

Pretty awesome, huh? So here's the deal. They've only made this episode and to fund a whole series they're looking to raise a little cash. After you've checked out the show, you should go donate over here. I did. You can too. Everybody's doing it. 

What better way to inspire you to chip in or share the Kickstarter campaign than this Double Clicks music video:

Your Friends You Haven't Met Yet: Pony Ride

I'd like to introduce you to some friends you haven't met yet: Pony Ride aka Katie Smith, Jessica Spaw, and Alexa Green.




Let's get to know our new friends:

So how did you get starting making videos together?

The three of us all did improv at University of California Irvine (on the team Live Nude People *With Clothes On) together but parted ways once we graduated, it wasn't till a year later after moving each separately to LA, that we reunited and realized the best way to pursue comedy was to make our own content.

Awesome! What does your writing/editing process look like?

We have all studied at the Upright Citizens Brigade and feel that has had a major influence on our writing. Sometimes we write individually, sometimes together, and other times we have a concept and beats but we improv a majority of the sketch. Improv has taught us to ask ourselves when writing "if this is true what else is..." and that can really take us anywhere, which is a lot of fun.

Who are your comedy heros?

We have A LOT of comedy heros since there are three of us the top being: Tina Fey. Amy Pohler, The Mighty Boosh, Ricky Gervias, Carol Bernett, Kristin Wiig, Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Zach Galifianakis.

Find more Pony Ride  Facebook or  YouTube. Can't wait to see future awesome from Pony Ride!

(I would also like to take this opportunity to mention that former Wisecrack-mentioned comedian, Lauren Lapkus from The Money Kids is now on the best show ever, Orange is the New Black. I think we can extrapolate this data to mean that Pony Ride will have a Netflix Original Series in approximately two years.)

If only this Daria movie were real...

The sad thing: The target audience of Plaza's new film has never heard of Daria.

Totally Biased Takes on Street Harassment

Okay- I don't know if this is some kind of karma-retention program after setting up the "Feminist vs Comedians" debate (which really revealed some undeniable cultural misogyny as previously mentioned) but W. Kamau Bell gets major props for this segment.

Awesome for a few reasons:

1) So often women fighting street harassment are portrayed as people who take things too seriously. He's setting the segments up so that the women are making/in on the joke and the guys who harass aren't.

2) It's for a Comedy Central audience: Mostly male 18-35 year olds (correction: it's on FX... but the same point holds true).

3) There's a cameo featuring Emily May from Hollaback! She's great.

Patton Oswalt on Joke-Thievery, Heckling and Rape Jokes

May I direct your attention over here to Patton Oswalt's honest and self-reflective analysis of the rape joke debate.  It's pretty long, here are few excerpts:

...See if any of these sound familiar: 

There’s no “evidence” of a “rape culture” in this country.  I’ve never wanted to rape anyone, so why am I being lumped in as the enemy?  If these bloggers and feminists make “rape jokes” taboo, or “rape” as a subject off-limits no matter what the approach, then it’ll just lead to more censorship.  

They sure sound familiar to me because I, at various points, was saying them.  Either out loud, or to myself, or to other comedian and non-comedian friends when we would argue about this.  I had my viewpoint, and it was based on solid experience, and it…was…fucking…wrong. 

Let’s go backwards through those bullshit conclusions, shall we?  First off: no one is trying to make rape, as a subject, off-limits.  No one is talking about censorship.  In this past week of re-reading the blogs, going through the comment threads, and re-scrolling the Twitter arguments, I haven’t oncefound a single statement, feminist or otherwise, saying that rape shouldn’t be joked under anycircumstance, regardless of context.  Not one example of this. 

In fact, every viewpoint I’ve read on this, especially from feminists, is simply asking to kick upward, to think twice about who is the target of the punchline, and make sure it isn’t the victim....

There is a collective consciousness that can detect the presence (and approach) of something good or bad, in society or the world, before any hard “evidence” exists.  It’s happening now with the concept of “rape culture.”  Which, by the way, isn’t a concept.  It’s a reality.  I’m just not the one who’s going to bring it into focus.  But I’ve read enough viewpoints, and spoken to enough of my female friends (comedians and non-comedians) to know it isn’t some vaporous hysteria, some false meme or convenient catch-phrase.

Alright, if you're reading this blog, you don't need Patton Oswalt to tell you any of this. But I think it's awesome that he's written it, and I hope it gets widely read.

On a side note, I wonder if he's friends with Diablo Cody (who wrote Young Adult, and Juno, and that book, Candy Girl, about stripping in Minneapolis). Probs.


H/T Russ Rogers

Issa Rae and Amanda De Cadenet on Awkward Black Girl and P.O.C. representations in media

Issa Rae is awesome.

Badass of the Year: Lindy West

Lindy West, you are our hero.

Thank you for standing up for the power of comedy to shape our world. 

In case you haven't heard, Lindy did a rape joke debate with Jim Norton on Totally Biased.  The crux of this argument is basically the same thing we've been writing about here for years- Lindy says comedy influences culture, a point Jim denies ("as long as you're trying to be funny, you're okay.")


She did an amazing job. My favorite of Lindy's lines:

"I'm sure it's super comfortable and nice to believe that there aren't systemic forces affected by speech, but it's not true and those of us who are affected by those forces know that that's not true.... you don't get to say that comedy is the sacred, powerful vital thing that we have to protect because it's speaking truth to power and also be like, 'oh it's just a joke, I mean, language doesn't affect our lives at all, so shut up.'"

YES. So much love and appreciation for her. To be fair, this match was fixed. Lindy's straight up smarter than Jim. And she's right.

And everyone on Twitter thanked her and comedians who make shitty rape jokes realized the error of their ways and apologized! We wish. Actually, enter hundreds of hateful tweets aimed at Lindy.

In response to the backlash, Jim Norton made a ridiculously wimpy half-hearted suggestion on Opie and Anthony that his fans not write her hateful messages. Actually, he said "you can write whatever you want, but you're not helping the argument" but mostly he just sat around while the hosts of the show mindlessly trash-talked Lindy. Keep it classy, Jim! [Update: A way classier note from Jim was posted and can be found here.]

We love her work at Jezebel and look forward to all the awesome things she will no doubt do in the future.

Thanks, Lindy, for doing what you do.

Okay, we're not quite done talking about sexual violence and comedy...

Sady Doyle wrote to comedian Sam Morril about his jokes about rape/hurting women.

If you've seen much stand-up, you've likely been in her situation before. You go to a show, you're having a grand old time, and then some ass gets onstage and thinks it's funny to make a date-rape joke. I paid $4 for this? Then Sam Morril wrote a response where he says he knows more about comedy than she does, and it's ironic and Sarah Silverman makes rape jokes so he can, too, blah blah blah, and he obviously doesn't get it. He says that because his feminist mom, manager and ex-girlfriend think his rape jokes are funny, it's cool. Sounds a lot like "but my best friend is ________."

Hey Sam:

1) Sure, you have the right to make jokes about rape (and the Boston marathon and the n-word.)

2) You're still responsible for the impact of your comedy on the world.  

3) There's a huge difference between a woman joking about being raped and a guy joking about raping. There are rape jokes that make fun of people who think rape is okay, and there are rape jokes that make fun of people who get assaulted. Many guys have proven that a rape joke doesn't have to be "rape=funny." It can also be "people who have sex without consent are assholes." 

4) Look at where your power is aimed. Is it challenging groups in power? Or making fun of groups or the experiences of groups that are already being shat upon? 

I'm totally appreciative of Sady Doyle's article. Yet, the world has no shortage of dudes who make shitty and cheap shock jokes about rape onstage. And some of these guys don't care that half a dozen folks in the audience have been raped. And some just don't realize it or realize how their art is supporting a world where wink-wink rape is hilarious. 

I don't care if comedians aren't onstage to make the world a better place. But it makes me mad when that power is used for supporting things like racism, sexism, ableism, fat phobia, heterosexism and other forms of discrimination and cruelty. You can joke about race, sex, disabilities, fatness, gayness and murder without (whoopsies! it's-ironic-so-it's-cool) accidentally endorsing hatred.

Recommended reading:

"Stop Saying Rape Jokes are Never Funny" by comedian Sarah Mowrey

Anatomy of a Successful Rape Joke by Jessica Valenti

3 Points about Rape Jokes that People Seem to be Ignoring by Guante

Ugh.What a drag, right? This is why Wisecrack prefers to highlight amazing comedians who are making awesome shit. For instance, Issa Rae's Awkward Black Girl series. If you're not already familiar, go check it out. 

On Making a Rape PSA

A Guest Post by Annie Laferriere

When I find myself annoyed with or upset with something, my general reaction is to throw jokes at it. Not being the most aggressive of people, I find it a cathartic way to state my opinion. The babble going on a few months before the election, spurred by the rape comments made by Todd Akin and Richard Murdoch made me laugh a lot.  Then I got annoyed that such stupid statements were getting so much air time. Then I laughed a little more.  And then I texted ten of my comedienne/actress girlfriends and said, "Hey I have a really funny idea for a sketch about rape.  Do you want in?"  Luckily almost all of them trust my comedic sensibilities and two days later we had our cast of five beautiful funny chicks.

Rape is such a sensitive topic and I worried about offending people. Not really just any people. But survivors. That thought horrified me, and we tried to approach it in such a way that wouldn't be offensive but would make people laugh, but also think about sexual violence and the reality that we live in a world where rape is way too common. 

The PSA was scripted, but a lot of improv ended up in the final cut. I'm so happy with the way it turned out. I'm proud of what it says.  I hope people enjoy the satire but understand the statement.

Annie is an LA-based stand up and improv comedienne. See more of her stuff at http://3rdwheelcomedy.com/.

Sitting on Babies: Sitting Down with Becky Whittemore

When comedians Becky Whittemore and Brooke Jacob teamed up to make Sitting On Babies, they focused on two topics that they had first hand experience of: providing childcare in New York City and being featured on reality television. In fact, Becky's reality tv story is so amazing that an episode of Spike TV's show "Ink Master" was named after her experience. I want to share this story, as told to me by the incredibly endearing Becky, and then we'll get to the webseries (pinky swear).

So a friend of Becky's asks if she wants to get a free tattoo for this tattoo competition show, Ink Master. Since Becky has been thinking about tattoos anyways, plus this is a FREE tattoo from a real professional (I mean, the show is called Ink Master), it seems like a no-brainer.

Becky Whittemore

Fast-forward to the show's taping. Becky is asked to choose between three styles: Tribal, american traditional or pin-up. She goes pin-up. There's a speed element, so Becky doesn't have much time to hem and haw over what she wants with the tattoo artist. Being from Georgia, she goes with a pretty lady sitting next to a big peach. The artist draws up a sketch, and Becky asks for fuller hair on the tattoo. And one more thing- can she be barefoot instead of wearing heels?

The tattoo comes along quickly and somethings looks a little off to Becky, but heck, it's a free tattoo! A week later, Becky realizes why it looks so funny. Can you see it?

You're right, the peach looks a little (a lot) like a butt (err, sorry Becky!) but that's not it. Okay, try now:

That's right. A week after getting her tattoo she realizes that her pin-up has two right feet. The title of the episode featuring Becky's tattoo? "Permanent Mistakes".

"When you're on the set you realize how completely fake all these shows are. The scenes are edited together out of order, and they might have you answer questions on air and then splice it with other footage to make it seem like you're talking to the host. We wanted our series to show that absurdity," Says Becky.

Okay- that was a tangential but fun way of getting to the show, Sitting on Babies:



For those of you who are unable to just watch the above clip (maybe you're at work, it's cool, no judgement) this is a show about two New York City nannies, in a style that perfectly mimics the worst of all those damn TLC shows that we love to hate (props to director Tim Young and the rest of their talented crew).

"I'm a comedian but Brooke is a for-real legit actress. We met at an Upright Citizens Brigade improv class and knew we wanted to work together," says Becky. "We decided to make the show loosely based on our lives. We write about real life stories but not entirely directly, since we don't want to freak anyone out and we still need to get paid."

Brooke Jacob

On comedy site Funny or Die their three episodes have collectively been viewed about 25,000 times so far, which is pretty damn impressive (and that doesn't even include people like you who may have just watched it on YouTube).
You can subscribe to their YouTube channel for new episodes.

Becky was ridiculously nice and it's cool to see how she and Brooke have turned an idea into such a well-made show. You can't help but root for them as they keep making awesome happen.

Lindy West on Being Fat and Dealing With Online Trolls

Via Upworthy:

Lindy West takes to the stage to talk about being fat and dealing with ridiculous trolling on the live storytelling series Back Fence PDX in Portland:


Heartbreaking, love it, want to be her friend.

Erin Judge on Being Raised by Gay Parents

Comedian and writer Erin Judge (see her guest post here) has made this succinct and powerful video about growing up as the daughter of two moms.

We Killed: What Other, More Legitimate Reviewers Are Saying

As a feminism and comedy blog, we are obligated to inform you of the newest book on women in comedy: "We Killed: Women in American Comedy," by Yael Kohen.

I haven't read it yet, but I can summarize its reviews for you:

New York Times:

Janet Maslin writes for the NYT that We Killed is filled with stories from people in the industry and is "...apt to raise more questions than answers." Maslin slights the book a few times, for not being as good of an account of Saturday Night Live as another book which focuses entirely on Saturday Night Live and not coming to any solid conclusions about women in comedy. (This article initially screwed up and credited a different author for the book. Whoops.)

NPR:

NPR's Linda Holmes calls it "sprawling" with "some sections are substantially more interesting that others."  She ends with:

...Some of what's here is well covered territory; Ellen DeGeneres doesn't say much about her coming-out experience that's different from what she's said before, and the treatments of Mary Tyler Moore and other comic actresses are too brief to be satisfying. But it does touch on a wide variety of challenges that really are specific to funny women — how vulgar to be, how cute to be, how sexy to be, how self-deprecating to be (the term comes up over and over), and, crucially, to separate the challenges in your career that have everything to do with being a woman from the ones that have nothing or only something to do with it.

What makes a story like this a little poignant, of course, is that to the degree there's a history of it being hard for women to break into comedy, the ones that would be most interesting to know about aren't the ones who made it anyway, whose names you know. They're the ones who didn't make it, who couldn't figure out how to navigate around the obstacles. And if they're out there, it's hard to say how you'd find them.

Teen Vogue:

So Teen Vogue is decidedly more positive, calling it "as entertaining as it is informative." This might be attributed to the fact that they scored an interview.  They also ask dumb questions like, "You quote Chelsea Handler saying that female comedians don't always support each other. Do you find this to be true?" (That's it. I'm cancelling my Teen Vogue subscription.)

In the first question Kohen says she wasn't familiar with the WAF (Women Aren't Funny) thing before Christopher Hitchens. Ugh. I can't help but suspect that someone who was that far removed from the dialogue has just jumped in, interviewed a few folks (okay, over 150 people) and re-hashed other people's analysis.

Here we go- Kohen may have summarized her book for us right here:

When you speak to a lot of people, you realize that there are trends and similarities in what they're saying, which is how I organized the book. All these women are storytellers—that's what they do for a living—so why not let them tell their stories? It's more interesting than hearing what I have to say about comedy!

 *Emphasis very much my own

Macmillan Website:

Okay, I cannot read past the intro paragraph.  Oh God! I forced myself. This is by far the dumbest review yet and makes me have no interest in reading the book:

And as each generation of women has developed its own style of comedy, the coups of the previous era are washed away and a new set of challenges arises. But the result is the same: They kill.

Did this person actually read the book? And if they did, is the message that women, categorically, are good at comedy? I don't know if it would be worse that they assumed this is what the book says or if this is what the book actually says.

Salon: 

Rachel Shukert's Salon review title says it all: "'We Killed': were women not funny until 1960?"

She responds to WAF in the first paragraph:

Since this question was first answered in the negative in the pages of Vanity Fair by the late, redoubtable Christopher Hitchens, it seems to have been designated by the chattering classes as one of the great unanswerables of the universe, destined to be dredged up every time someone’s looking for page hits by pissing off the wrong person at some heavily trafficked and influential ladyblog...

Women are human beings (no matter what some Republican members of Congress might believe); some human beings are endowed with an innate talent to make others laugh; ergo, some women are funny. The end.

(Shukert, come to Minneapolis so we can drink beer together and be best friends.)

“We Killed” is a well-meaning effort, at times even a noble one... 

Oh, I like Shukert even more. She ends with more analysis than Kohen's book appears to muster up, regarding the threat of women comedians:

Humor is power. We kill, and something inside them dies.

I wish Shukert would write this book. I really don't mean to be snarky. Maybe I'm just upset that Nancy A. Walker is still dead. Not to be confused with comedian Nancy Walker, who is also dead. (Did I ever mention that I found N.A.W.s obituary when I was looking for a way to contact her to thank her for writing A Very Serious Thing? It was so sad.)

From the sounds of the reviews and her own interview, it doesn't sound like folks who are looking for writing to further the dialogue of gender and comedy will get much out of it, aside from the stories from particular people about particular times and places. Some of these reviews say the book starts in the 1950's, some say the 1960's. Either way, I wish it went back further, because it's not too hard to find stories since the 50's. Although everyone who is alive to tell the story from further back is... actually dead by now.

Is it a good thing that dialogue about women in comedy might be sparked? Heck yes. Maybe if you've never thought about women and comedy, you'll like this book. But the fact that you have found this post probably excludes you from that category. If you're a comedy writer/performer/superfan then you're already familiar with the institutional sexism in the Comedy Industrial Complex.The reviews don't give any indication that this book will provide more than some nuggets of women in comedy trivia like this:

• Pauly Shore's mother Mitzi was incredibly influential in 1980's stand up. 
• Roseanne once had a Harvard-educated head writer ask her what lunch meat was.

Has anyone read it yet? Thoughts? Feelings? Highlights?

One last thing- A Public Service Announcement from Wisecrack: If you are writing an article that has anything to do with women and comedy or a specific female comedian and you use the words Funny Girl in the title, you will be added to the List of Shame.

Zoe Saldana on Actresses, Age and Inequality

Here's a great clip of actress Zoe Saldana and Amanda de Cadenet discussing women in Hollywood and they myth of modern day gender equality. Check it out!

Via Upworthy